I love credit cards so much!

[calypso726]

Thanks for the input. I am afraid in exactly what you described in that I will sign up and not use it. I've been googling what I'm trying to do and learning a lot about Hawaii travel, but nothing that meets my criteria specifically. I live in a major city....I can't be the first person to ever book points for this flight!

I'll continue to keep digging. The good news is I am planning for a summer 2019 trip, so I'm getting an early start.

What's your criteria? I can try to help or offer insight, point you in the right direction etc.

This is wonderful. Thank you!
Is there a good list of the airlines and the point redemption values? For example someone upthread said booking on Korean air points used much less than the same flight thru delta. A list of tips and tricks like that somewhere?

Not that I am aware of and even if there was it would likely be outdated pretty quickly. Airlines have a tendency to devalue, "enhance" or change their award redemption periodically so what is true today may not be true tomorrow. Again, this is where the bloggers come in handy. I find Googling search terms like "best way to fly xxxx on miles and points" or "best way to use xxxx points and miles" very helpful. Most of the top bloggers have written a series on using points and miles and where the sweet spots are for any miles/points currency. You want to find the most updated articles because whatever they wrote about in 2013, 2014, 2015 etc may not be completely accurate. Many of the bloggers do a decent job of updating previous articles though.

 

[Albort]

This is wonderful. Thank you!
Is there a good list of the airlines and the point redemption values? For example someone upthread said booking on Korean air points used much less than the same flight thru delta. A list of tips and tricks like that somewhere?

http://www.awardace.com/
http://www.awardhacker.com/

warning: its missing a few reward programs, ie Virgin Atlantic. Was told Virgin Atlantic does some pretty good redemption.

Thanks for looking into that. Did you find this through Delta? If so, I thought I needed to search and book through the partner airlines because Delta is 135,000 points directly but Korean Airlines is 45,000. I've searched through Korean Airlines, Air France, and Alaskan Airlines and haven't been able to locate this flight.

I don't quite understand how many award seats are available and when the best time to book those seats are. I've just been randomly selecting a date trying to play around with it right now. I guess it could be that I am picking days without any awards seats available.

I used google flights. and yes, u wont be able to find those Delta flights through Korean Air/Air France. i was told AF is better to search than KE. I would find the flight # on delta, give KE a call to see if they can book that reward flight. If they can, transfer into KE and book the flight. at least, thats what everyone says.

 

[ski_mom]

I received an offer in the mail for an AmEx business gold rewards card that would earn 75,000 MR points with $5,000 spend. I'm thinking of applying for it, but it would be my first AmEx card and my first to earn MR points. Does that seem like an ok idea? I am over the limit for Chase, so I'm ready to move on. I was just approved for the Citi TY Premier a couple of weeks ago if that matters. Just wanting to make sure there aren't any tricks to spending MR points.

Thanks!

 

[mistyinca]

Does anyone have a current referral for the Disney visa $200 bonus for the card with NO ANNUAL FEE? Please message me.

Thanks.

 

[Albort]

bleh. Chase is trying to turn the Freedom card into a Sapphire clone... the new design looks terrible!

 

[Lain]

bleh. Chase is trying to turn the Freedom card into a Sapphire clone... the new design looks terrible!

I don't mind it. I'm a big fan of credit card numbers moving to the back of the card.

 

[Albort]

I don't mind it. I'm a big fan of credit card numbers moving to the back of the card.

but how are places suppose to swipe when the internet goes down!

 

[calypso726]

I received an offer in the mail for an AmEx business gold rewards card that would earn 75,000 MR points with $5,000 spend. I'm thinking of applying for it, but it would be my first AmEx card and my first to earn MR points. Does that seem like an ok idea? I am over the limit for Chase, so I'm ready to move on. I was just approved for the Citi TY Premier a couple of weeks ago if that matters. Just wanting to make sure there aren't any tricks to spending MR points.

Thanks!

That seems like a god deal. I'd go for it.

 

[eeyoresmom]

We are staying for 9 nights but were going to surprise the kids with 3 nights at BC and then move to SSR for the last 6 nights. Since we have to get two rooms at BC, that place gets $$ fast. Well, the redemptions were getting really good once we hit a week out. I realized that we could stay longer at BC (5 nights) if we were willing to drop to a moderate for 4 nights. So, that is what I did. We are at CS the last 4 nights. The kids only think we are staying at CS so I'm trying to come up with a way to surprise them And yes, we are paying less points overall! I'm sad to lose the space and kitchen/laundry of SSR but we don't spend a ton of time in the room.

Just for anyone interested, the prices I am seeing now that we are right upon our trip are:
ASSp for $57, ASMu and Mo $70's, Pop $88, AoA $94, CS and CBR $98, POFQ $142, POR $175, AKL $156, BWV $199, BC $231, YC $279
(these prices are before taxes and redeeming points from CSR)

I was hoping to see YC drop to the $149 that others saw back in August but I check daily and have never seen it even close to that. The extra and cheap inventory seems to be in the values mostly for our dates.

Can you share where you are seeing those deals? Through the UR portal? We have 3 nights booked at ASSports in September but would love to upgrade. Since this is an add on to a DL trip, we're trying to keep it budget friendly.

 

[tink1970]

If anyone is considering donating for hurricane relief, TPG has links to American Airlines and United so you can donate and earn miles. Win win for a bad/sad situation in Texas.

 

[wendow]

Can you share where you are seeing those deals? Through the UR portal? We have 3 nights booked at ASSports in September but would love to upgrade. Since this is an add on to a DL trip, we're trying to keep it budget friendly.

Yes, these prices are through the Chase UR portal using points from my CSR. If you were redeeming points from the CSP, the prices would be higher. Our trip is only 4 days away and the prices for some resorts have dropped even more now.

 

[eeyoresmom]

Yes, these prices are through the Chase UR portal using points from my CSR. If you were redeeming points from the CSP, the prices would be higher. Our trip is only 4 days away and the prices for some resorts have dropped even more now.

Thanks. DH has a CSR. Ill be checking daily.

 

[Lain]

Yes, these prices are through the Chase UR portal using points from my CSR. If you were redeeming points from the CSP, the prices would be higher. Our trip is only 4 days away and the prices for some resorts have dropped even more now.

Wow! I assume the reservations are refundable. But how last minute can you cancel and rebook???

 

[wendow]

Wow! I assume the reservations are refundable. But how last minute can you cancel and rebook???

IDK really lol. I think within 48 hours you are charged a fee but not sure how much that would be. I cancelled and rebooked the original reservation just 6 days out and the points were back in my account instantly. I had enough to cover both reservations so I wasn't worried about that but it's nice to know the points go back immediately.

Since this is a split-stay and our first resort is not changing, I'm not worried about DME but you would want to think about that. If you don't have a ton of luggage to grab, it may not be a big deal. I'd be willing to grab my own luggage for a decent savings

ETA: I say our trip is 4 days out but the dates I am pricing don't begin until 9/5 so that is really 9 days out.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

IDK really lol. I think within 48 hours you are charged a fee but not sure how much that would be. I cancelled and rebooked the original reservation just 6 days out and the points were back in my account instantly. I had enough to cover both reservations so I wasn't worried about that but it's nice to know the points go back immediately.

Since this is a split-stay and our first resort is not changing, I'm not worried about DME but you would want to think about that. If you don't have a ton of luggage to grab, it may not be a big deal. I'd be willing to grab my own luggage for a decent savings

ETA: I say our trip is 4 days out but the dates I am pricing don't begin until 9/5 so that is really 9 days out.

I looked for tomorrow, just out of curiosity and AS sports or music are about $80 per night with AK and GF at 300 & 430 respectively. So I suppose if you don't use DME it would work.

 

[wendow]

I looked for tomorrow, just out of curiosity and AS sports or music are about $80 per night with AK and GF at 300 & 430 respectively. So I suppose if you don't use DME it would work.

So, maybe there is a 'sweet spot' where the rates drop and then increase once the stay is next day kind of thing. I just plugged in 9/5-9/9 (last 4 nights of our stay) and ASSp is $57, AKL $214 and GF $278. These are pretax and I only put in 1 guest since Disney allows you to add additional when you call.

You can still use DME. You would just need to get your bags yourself and take them to the bus.

 

[eeyoresmom]

So, maybe there is a 'sweet spot' where the rates drop and then increase once the stay is next day kind of thing. I just plugged in 9/5-9/9 (last 4 nights of our stay) and ASSp is $57, AKL $214 and GF $278. These are pretax and I only put in 1 guest since Disney allows you to add additional when you call.

You can still use DME. You would just need to get your bags yourself and take them to the bus.

Our trip is Sept 21- 24. So far I've only seen AoA and ASMU at over $300 and some random Disney resorts at rack rate or near. How soon before a check on date are you guys finding these? Does putting 1 guest change the price? I've been putting 2.

 

[wendow]

Our trip is Sept 21- 24. So far I've only seen AoA and ASMU at over $300 and some random Disney resorts at rack rate or near. How soon before a check on date are you guys finding these? Does putting 1 guest change the price? I've been putting 2.

People were reporting in August that they were seeing really low prices about 3 weeks before their trips. I started checking daily when we were about a month out. I didn't see the prices really dropping until about 10 days out. I think your dates are going to be busier than ours so there may not be quite as cheap of prices.

I was trying to price two rooms (what our fam of 6 needs) by putting in 1 adult/2 kids and the prices were higher than just 1 adult. I never tried just two people. Disney doesn't charge for kids so I booked the room with 1 adult and then added two kids to each room when I called for the conf#.

 

[mhartman09]

People were reporting in August that they were seeing really low prices about 3 weeks before their trips. I started checking daily when we were about a month out. I didn't see the prices really dropping until about 10 days out. I think your dates are going to be busier than ours so there may not be quite as cheap of prices.

I was trying to price two rooms (what our fam of 6 needs) by putting in 1 adult/2 kids and the prices were higher than just 1 adult. I never tried just two people. Disney doesn't charge for kids so I booked the room with 1 adult and then added two kids to each room when I called for the conf#.

After seeing your posts I tried checking the UR portal for any kind of rate drops for our trip in early October. Sadly, there are NO rooms showing up at all for our dates, but I'm not really surprised as there was very little to choose from when we first booked anyway. I definitely want to read up more on this "half board" stuff. I'll be booking a third WDW trip through the Chase portal in the next few months and I've never seen this term when searching.

 

[eeyoresmom]

People were reporting in August that they were seeing really low prices about 3 weeks before their trips. I started checking daily when we were about a month out. I didn't see the prices really dropping until about 10 days out. I think your dates are going to be busier than ours so there may not be quite as cheap of prices.

I was trying to price two rooms (what our fam of 6 needs) by putting in 1 adult/2 kids and the prices were higher than just 1 adult. I never tried just two people. Disney doesn't charge for kids so I booked the room with 1 adult and then added two kids to each room when I called for the conf#.

Thank you, I'll keep checking